How copying Telegram signals to MT5 works

What you need

01

A place for the app to run

A VPS, which stays on around the clock and is set up from the Desk on this website in minutes. Or your own Windows PC (Windows 10 or 11) or Linux machine, where it works while that machine is on. Nothing to install on a Mac or a phone: the Desk covers those.

02

A MetaTrader 5 account

At any broker that offers MT5. A demo account behaves exactly like a live one and is the right place to start. The app sets the terminal up for you, or on a PC uses the one you already have.

03

A Telegram account

Your own, already a member of the groups or channels you want to follow. The app signs in as you and reads only the chats you pick. Telegram is what the app reads today.

04

A Relay2Trade licence

A licence activates the app. Without an active one the app signs you in and waits: nothing else runs until one is active. A new account gets a demo day to try it.

Setting up

The Desk on this website walks you through these in order, and on Windows so does the app's own window. About ten minutes, start to finish.

1
Get the app running

Sign in to the Desk on this website and open "Where the app runs". On a VPS, the Desk sets it up and the app signs in by itself, with nothing to download. On a Linux machine, the Desk gives you one command that installs everything. On a Windows PC, open relay2trade.com/download, run the installer and sign in. Wherever it runs, the app keeps itself up to date: every release is signed, and the app verifies the signature before it installs an update.
- On Windows you sign in with your Relay2Trade account: the same one as on this website, two-factor code included if you enabled it.
- On Windows the app needs no administrator rights; it writes nothing outside your user profile.
2

Activate your licence

Pick a plan, in the Desk or on the website. The app checks the licence with our server and unlocks the rest of the setup. You can cancel or resume it from your licence page; when your access ends, trading stops and your settings are kept with your account.
3

Connect Telegram

Sign in with your own Telegram account, in the Desk or in the app's window. “Log in with a QR code” is the recommended way: on your phone, open Telegram → Settings → Devices → Link Desktop Device and point the camera at the code. Or use your phone number and the code Telegram sends you. If your account has a two-step password, the app asks for it after. The session is kept where the app runs, and you can revoke it any time from Telegram's “Devices” screen.
4
Connect MetaTrader 5

Enter your broker server, login and password, in the Desk or in the app's window: the app hands them to MetaTrader 5, which logs in. On a VPS or on Linux the terminal is already there. On a Windows PC without MT5, the app downloads the official MetaQuotes installer and runs it; Windows asks for permission once, since the terminal goes into Program Files as it always does. The app then attaches its bridge, an Expert Advisor called Relay2TradeBridge, to a chart. That bridge is the only channel it uses to read the account and place orders.
- Already have MT5 on your PC with your own charts and EAs? The app uses that installation, switches algo trading on, and leaves your charts and other EAs alone.
- The bridge only ever touches positions it opened itself. Your manual trades and other EAs are invisible to it.
5
Add listeners

A listener is one group or channel plus the rules for it. Pick the chat from your Telegram list (or type an @handle for a public channel), give it a name, and choose a mode.
- Auto — signals are traded as they arrive.
- Manual — every signal waits for your approval on the dashboard.
- Watch — signals are recorded, nothing is placed. Use this to evaluate a group before trusting it.
- Dry run — replays a listener's latest messages (how many depends on your plan) against the price history and shows what would have happened, placing nothing. The fastest way to judge a group.

A message, step by step

Every message in a listened chat goes through the same pipeline. A signal is typically on the broker within a few seconds of the message arriving.

01 receive

The message arrives

The app receives it through your Telegram session, like any other client you are signed in on. It only looks at chats with a listener.

02 prefilter

Cheap first cut

A message goes further when it has a number and either a trading word, in any of about 25 languages (buy, sell, TP, SL, compra, venda, mua, покупка…), or an instrument with its prices (XAUUSD 2405 2412). A follow-up with no number, such as "close it", is read while that group has a trade open or an order waiting. Chatter is not sent to be read, and what is set aside is listed under "Every message" for a week.

03 parse

AI extraction

The message text is sent to our server, which asks an AI model one narrow question: is this a trade instruction, and if so what are the instrument, side, entry, stop-loss and take-profits? Instruments are normalised (“gold” becomes XAUUSD), entry zones and percent-based levels are understood, and recaps, results or “TP hit” updates come back as not-a-signal. We do not store the message.

04 risk

The risk engine

Where the app runs, the parsed signal meets your rules: symbol whitelist, trading hours and days, daily loss and equity floor, position, lot and margin caps, cooldown, spread. The size comes from your sizing mode: a risk percentage or a cash amount is worked out from the stop distance for the whole signal, fixed lots are taken as set. A signal that fails a rule is skipped and a likely duplicate waits for your approval, with the reason written into the signal's story.

05 execute

Orders

The bridge places the orders: at market, or as pending orders at the stated entry if the listener is in limit mode. Several take-profits become a separate trade for each, one trade that closes a share at each, or one trade at the nearest or the furthest — your choice; a netting account holds them as one position. The signal's size is shared across its take-profits, unless fixed lots are set for each take-profit. Every order carries a stop-loss by default: the signal's, or the default stop for its kind of instrument when the signal gives none. With "Require stop-loss" on, a signal without one is refused instead. A kind whose default stop is set to 0 trades with no stop, at your fixed lots. In manual mode this step waits for your click.

06 manage

Management

As take-profits fill, the stop-loss of what is still open can move forward — to the entry, behind the previous take-profit, in fixed steps from the entry, or a set number of pips behind the take-profit just hit — forward only, never back. Pending orders expire after the time you set, optionally falling back to a market entry if the price is still close. A part with no take-profit is a runner: once it is far enough in profit its stop can follow the price, and it can close before the weekend or after a time limit. A later message about the same trade — stop to break-even, a new stop or target, close all or part, cancel a pending order — is applied to that trade; one that could mean more than one trade does nothing and says so. It is read even without a number, while that group has a trade open or an order waiting.

07 story

The story

Each signal keeps its full story on the dashboard: the parse, every rule it passed or failed, each order and its result. With Remote control on, the same story appears in the Desk on this website — so you can check from your phone what happened and why.

The rules you set

The app never places an order outside these. The profile's settings apply to every listener; a listener can set its own size, take-profit, trailing, runner and stop-loss settings in their place, and limits of its own that are never above the profile's.

Position sizing

Sizing mode: a percentage of equity or a cash amount at risk for the whole signal, or fixed lots for each take-profit or for the whole signal
Max lots per signal, whatever the sizing says — on each trade when fixed lots go to each take-profit as separate trades
Multiple take-profits: a separate trade for each, one trade with a partial close at each, or only the nearest or furthest — shared equally or by the shares you set
Trailing stop as take-profits fill: break-even, behind the previous take-profit, fixed steps from the entry, or a set number of pips
Runners, parts of a signal with no take-profit: a stop that follows the price in R or pips once far enough in profit, closed before the weekend or after a set number of hours

Safety limits

Max open positions overall and per symbol, pending orders included, and how many take-profits one signal may use
Max traded signals per day and max signals live at once
Daily loss circuit breaker and an equity floor kill-switch
Cooldown between entries; duplicate detection by symbol, side and levels
Max margin use, max slippage and max spread at entry
Total open lots, overall and per symbol

Trading hours and stops

Require a stop-loss, or place a default one at a distance you choose
All-or-nothing on multi-target signals that do not fully fit
Trading hours (broker time) and trading days
A symbol whitelist — only these instruments, from any group

Per listener

Mode: auto, manual or watch
Its own risk and a daily cap on traded signals, for that group only
Entry at market, or a pending order at the stated price with a time-to-live and an optional market fallback
Max deviation from the stated entry before a market entry is refused as chasing
Symbol restriction
Its own take-profit handling — mode, shares, how many one signal uses — plus trailing stop and runner settings, in place of the global ones

Levels, seasons, Sparks

The app keeps score of how you use it — not of profit. Here is what each piece means, in one breath each.

XP and levels

Every connected day, parsed signal and placed trade earns XP. XP adds up to a level that never resets; higher rungs unlock extras on top of your plan, such as one more listener.

Seasons and the track

Each quarter is a season with its own track of tiers. Season XP starts from zero every season and climbs the track; every tier you cross pays out — cards, Sparks, a look. Bought season XP moves your tier, never the board.

Boards

The season board ranks players by season XP earned in the app; the all-time ladder by total XP. At the close, the top places take the season's prizes. Nothing you buy can move a board.

Cards and the inventory

Many rewards arrive as cards that wait in your inventory: XP, extra listeners or profiles for a while, streak shields, free days. Use a card when it suits you. Cards stack: each runs for its own days, and their effects add up.

Sparks and the shop

Sparks are the in-app credits. You earn them on the track and at the close, or buy them in packages. The shop sells convenience cards, looks no season hands out, and season XP — never a place on the board, never profit.

Looks

Icons, borders and titles are how you appear on the boards and your public profile. They come from seasons, badges, levels or the shop, and they are yours for good.

Where your data lives

The app is not reachable from the internet: it opens every connection itself. With Remote control on, it sends us its status and signals over that connection, and carries out what you do in the Desk — approve, close, pause, change a setting — through the same checks as its own buttons.

Where the app runs

The text of every message the app reads
Trade history, signal stories and logs

On relay2trade.com

Whatever the sync switches say, every few minutes with the licence check: today's count of signals and trades, how many listeners are on, whether MetaTrader and Telegram are connected and which safety settings are on — counts and yes/no only, no text — so your level and season keep counting
Your settings and the list of groups you follow: your account keeps them, so the app has them wherever it runs
Your Relay2Trade account: email, password hash, two-factor secret — not your broker or Telegram account
Licence status and Stripe references; invoices, as the law requires
The device name and app version that last checked in
Your progress — XP, level, season, Sparks and items — and, unless you hide yourself, your board name and looks on the public boards
Your support tickets, the emails we sent you, and error reports from the app with the log lines around the error
Message text, briefly, while it is being parsed — parsing itself keeps none of it

With Remote control on

Status: MT5 connected, Telegram running, which listeners are up
Your settings shown in the Desk, where you can change them from any device, while "Sync settings & listeners" is on
A summary of each signal: instrument, side, levels, the parse, what was placed and what happened
The original message text while Sync original messages is on, which is the default — never credentials or the Telegram session

A setting changed in the Desk is kept by your account and taken by the app at once, or at its next start if it is not running.

Running it around the clock on a VPS

Signals arrive when they arrive. If the machine the app runs on is off or asleep, nothing is read. A VPS stays on around the clock, and you never have to open it: the Desk on this website sets it up, and is where you follow and change everything afterwards.

The full VPS guide →

Getting one

Quick install: the Desk has a VPS set up for you with the app already on it, in under a minute. It is an optional extra beside a plan, and the demo day includes it.
In your own account at a provider: the Desk has a VPS created in your own DigitalOcean account, in about ten minutes. It is yours, and you pay the provider.
A VPS you already have: on Linux, one command from the Desk installs everything and signs the app in; on Windows, you install the app as on a PC. The full guide covers both.

Keep in mind

Trading hours and days in the settings do the scheduling — no need to start and stop the app by hand for sessions you want to skip.
Check the Desk from anywhere — Remote control is on unless you switched it off — and approve signals, close trades or change settings from there too.
On a VPS you manage yourself, use a strong password, keep it updated and never share its access.
Moving later is simple: start the app somewhere else from the Desk and it is signed out where it ran. Your synced settings follow; MetaTrader 5 and Telegram are signed in once more in the new place.

Step by step

1

Open "Where the app runs" in the Desk

Sign in on this website, open the Desk and choose how you want your VPS. Any device will do, a phone included.
2

Follow its steps

Quick install is one press. For a VPS at a provider, or one of your own, the page shows each step and ticks it off as it is done. The app signs in to your account by itself.
3

Sign in MetaTrader 5

In the Desk, open Connections: type your broker's name, pick its server, and enter your account number and password. Use a demo account first if this is your first run.
4

Sign in Telegram

Scan the QR code with Telegram on your phone, or use your phone number and the code Telegram sends. You will see the app as a new device in Telegram.
5

Add listeners, set your limits

Start in watch or manual mode, check a few signals in their story, then switch the listeners you trust to auto.

Where the line is

Relay2Trade is software that follows your configuration. We are not a broker, not an investment firm and not an adviser; we never hold funds and never decide what to trade. Every order is the product of your configuration acting on a group you chose, on your own account at your own broker.

Legal notice → Terms of service →

How Relay2Trade works